Due to it’s mini size, the IPhone 13 Mini is naturally going to be lacking in battery life compared to its larger siblings. But how much worse is the battery compared to the standard IPhone 13, or the new IPhone 14 and 14 Pro? I look at whether the IPhone 13 Mini Battery can survive a full day of travel. I’ll also provide tips on how to optimise and extend your battery for even the longest days of adventuring. How to Get the Most Out of the IPhone 13 Mini Battery When Travelling
The Battery
Compared to it’s larger siblings, the IPhone 13 Mini has a pretty meagre battery capacity of just 2,406 mAh. For reference, this is almost 30% lower than the new IPhone 14 and a massive 44% lower than the 14 Pro Max.
To the right is a typical week of usage for me whilst travelling, averaging 4h 50m of screen on time. Besides the two days I had over 7 hours of screen-on time, the battery lasted all day. Though once or twice I did run the battery down to below 20% before plugging it in before bed.
None of the apps I use are especially heavy on battery life. I mostly just browse the internet, reddit and learn Duolingo on public transport. Mix this in with the occasional video playback and Google Maps navigation and it’s quite easy to get over 5 hours of screen-on time on one charge. However, if you like playing games or are using a lot of 5G data, this will drastically reduce your battery life.
Whilst I think the battery is fine for everyday usage, it definitely won’t last a full day of travelling. Especially if you use it alot for navigating or have a long haul flight. Watch the below video from Mrwhosetheboss to see how the 13 Mini compares to other Iphones.
How to Optimise/Extend Battery
There are a number of ways to improve the battery life of any IPhone. Having tried the below tips on my IPhone 13 Mini I can say they definitely make a noticeable difference. I can’t really provide solid figures on this however, but using every measure in the list below I would guess you could push your battery as much as 50% further. This is just based off personal experience though.
To extend my battery life I simply follow this list of 10 tips from IPhoneGeeks. Definitely check out their site for a full explanation of how to do it. For simplicity I’ll just list the summary below:
- Turn off unnecessary location services
- Stop apps from running in the background
- Go nuclear with Low Power Mode
- Disable Auto-Play Message Effects and Auto-Play Video Previews
- Reduce that brightness!
- Set a shorter Auto Lock timeout
- Monitor Misbehaving Apps
- Turn off unnecessary connectivity
- Remove or disable apps you don’t use
- Take advantage of charging capabilities
Just to note for my screen-on time I showed earlier in this post I was only using around half of these tips. So if I was really trying I could definitely have surpassed that average of 4h 50m of use. I’ll also note that turning off 5G connectivity in favour of 4G can also dramatically improve battery life if you’re using a lot of data (which you probably will when travelling!). For me personally though I prefer using 5G for the extra speed.
Magsafe Battery Pack – AliExpress Special
The Apple Magsafe Battery Pack has a frankly pathetic capacity of 1,460 mAh at a price of £99. This isn’t even enough for one full charge on the 13 Mini, let alone the standard sized IPhones. I therefore went for a 5,000 mAh battery pack from Aliexpress which cost me just £19.19. This means the pack is much larger than the Apple branded version. In fact, it barely fits on the 13 Mini (see previous image).
With 5,000 mAh you can get 2 full charges on the IPhone 13 Mini. It takes around 30 minutes to charge from 20% to 60%. This is basically just a short stay in a cafe or restaurant so is perfectly doable when on the go.
If you’re apprehensive of ordering from AliExpress I would say just give it a go. Besides the long delivery times (2 weeks for this pack) their service is great, they offer a full return policy, and their prices are unmatched.
I also bought some pretty groovy Airpods Pro cases from AliExpress to, so please take a look at my post on the best travel accessories to find out more.
Is the IPhone 13 Mini Battery Good Enough?
For me the IPhone 13 Mini is perfect for everyday life and I usually find myself on about 30-40% battery at the end of the day withnormal use. When travelling however it’s a different story. If you’re spending the entire day out and about, taking pictures and using Google maps you’re likely to run out of charge. One option would be to carry a charger with you, but this would tether you to one location whilst you wait for your phone to charge. It’s also not guaranteed you’ll even be able to find somewhere to plug a charger in.
With certain battery saving methods you’ll be able to extend you’re battery life considerably but this may not be enough to last everyday. Therefore my preferred method is a Magsafe battery pack. The wireless charging means you don’t need to carry a cable and plug around with you. Then the magnets stick to the back of you’re phone so you can charge inside your bag/pocket without having to worry about it randomly stopping to charge.
There are plenty of quality battery packs out there. Anker make serveral good models such as the 622. For aesthetics The Apple branded pack is definitely top tier. But for me I’m happy with a cheap 5,000 mAh pack from AliExpress.
More from Me…
- I wrote an article on the top accessories to have when travelling. Including the Apple AirTag, click the link to find out more.
- The Best Airline Alliances
- Best Airline for redeeming air miles
- 5 Interesting flights to add to your bucket list
Also check out my Amex referral links if you want to earn bonus points when signing up:
- The Platinum Card – You Receive 35,000 Membership Reward points: https://americanexpress.com/en-gb/referral/fREDEGgRA5?CPID=100493012
- British Airways Card: You Receive 12,000 Avios after spending £1,000 in the first 3 months, I receive 8,000 Avios: https://americanexpress.com/en-gb/referral/fREDEGuUeO?CPID=100493012